ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 38 / C&RL News ■ January 1998 G r a n t s a n d A c q u i s i t i o n s Ann-Christe Young C a lif o r n ia S ta te U n iv e r s it y , F res no has received a gift o f $1 million from the estate of Arne Nixon, a member o f the faculty o f the School o f Education and Human Development. The largest gift ever recorded for the Henry Madden Library, the money will be used to fund the Endowment for the Arne Nixon Center for the Study o f Children’s Literature. Nixon’s bequest will be used to hire a curator for the collection, to process and catalogue his collection, and to purchase new books. Two years ago, Nixon gave the library his personal collection o f children’s literature, which contains many signed first editions o f award-winning children’s books, correspondence from authors, original artwork from illustrators, and hundreds o f Newbery and Caldecott award-winning books. The collection has been appraised at $250,000 and contains 20,000 volumes. The Nixon collection is believed to be one o f the largest personal collections in the country and one of the finest special collections of children’s literature west o f the Mississippi. The U n iversity o f M in n e s o ta Libraries has received a $70,000 U.S. Department of Education grant to offer a week-long institute (July 12-July 18, 1998) for 25 participants in affirmative action library science internship and residency programs in the United States. P a rticip a n ts w ill b e tra in e d in new te le c o m m u n ic a tio n and m u ltim ed ia technologies and leadership skills, while gaining a community o f peers with whom they will develop a support network that will continue through their professional careers. Contact Peggy Johnson, Assistant University Librarian, University o f Minnesota Libraries, 499 Wilson Library, 309 19th Ave. So., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455; phone: (612) 624-2312; e-mail: m-john@tc.umn.edu. Southern Illinois U niversity, C arbondale (SIUC) Library Affairs has been awarded a $100,000 Illinois Board of Higher Education HECA grant to enhance and expand the Regional Center for Distance Learning and Multimedia Developm ent. The Regional Center is a cooperative activity of Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market and Southw estern Illinois Higher Education Consortium located in the SIUC Morris Library. S ta te H isto rica l S ociety o f W isconsin (SHSW) received a more than $403,000 donation from Scott M. Cutlip, former SHSW president and pioneer in the field o f public relations. The donation will be used to create an endowment to benefit the SHSW, which is the largest single library in the nation with collections dedicated exclusively to North American history, where Cutlip conducted much o f his research on three volumes of public relations history. T he U n iv e rs ity o f Illin o is a t U rb a n a - Champaign has received a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department o f Commerce, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and a variety of community agencies to fund a project entitled “Community-Wide Networking: Building Equity and Participation.” Over the course of the next two years, more than 1,000 low- in co m e h o u s e h o ld s in fo u r ta rg e te d neighborhoods will receive free computer equipment (much o f which will be donated by local organizations), free computer support, and lo w -c o s t o r fre e m em b ersh ip in Prairienet— a community computer network based in Champaign. While the project has several practical and research aspects, its centerpiece is the program that will train 100 low-income teens to repair and distribute donated computers to households in their neighborhoods— and to support the new computer users. The U n iv e rs ity o f M ich ig an has been awarded $250,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop an electronic Middle English Compendium. The project Ed. note: Send y o u r news to : Grants & Acquisitions, C&RL News, 50 E. H uron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e-mail: ayoung@ala.org. mailto:m-john@tc.umn.edu mailto:ayoung@ala.org C&RL News m January 1998 / 39 will involve developing three major and interconnected electronic resources, including a computerized version o f the print M iddle English D iction ary (MED), a HyperBiblio graphy (or electronic bibliography) o f the MED, and an associated network of computer- based medieval resources, including a large collection o f Middle English texts. SOLINET received $1 m illio n in f u n d ­ ing from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support a fourth cooperative preservation microfilming project. Planned in conjunction with the Association o f Southeastern Research Libraries and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1890s land-grant institutions), the one-year project will preserve 10,500 deteriorated volumes. Through SOLINET’s Preservation Microfilm Service, 16 libraries and archives will film brittle m onograph and serial collections covering aspects o f the history and culture o f the United States, Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland, Africa, and the West Indies. The N e w School fo r Social Research w as awarded a two-year grant totalling $30,000 by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. This grant will enable the Harry Scherman Library at the Mannes College o f Music, a division o f the New School located in New York City, to catalog, preserve, and make accessible a large collection o f chamber music scores and individual instrumental parts. A c q u i s i t i o n s Jo h n B u s c h e n h as d o n a t e d n e a r ly 1,200 books from his private collection to the University o f Wisconsin (UW)-River Falls Chalmer Davee Library. The collection consists o f beautifully illustrated books on art history, European history, and the humanities. Buschen has taught histoiy at UW-River Falls since 1966 and art history since 1974. Several collections fro m James M ich en er will become the Jam es A. Michener Archives at the U niversity o f Northern Colorado (UNC). Michener, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948 and is one o f the world’s bestselling authors, earned a master’s degree in education in 1937 from UNC (then known as the Colorado State College o f Education) and taught at the university and its Labora­ tory School from 1936-41. Michener also do­ nated $500,000 for the maintenance o f the ic h ae m m r D boB yb otohP James A. Michener, 90, a t his home in Austin, Texas, last A pril. archives, which will include a Web site and a room with research materials. Some o f the materials will come from other institutions as well. Included in the archives will be Michener’s personal papers, music collection, and three unpublished manuscripts; drafts, research materials, and original manuscripts from his novels; and the complete collection o f materials (1,600 items) from Michener scholar David Groseclose, author o f Ja m e s A. M ichener: A B ibliography. Michener died October 16, 1997. Ruth M . Batson, c o m m u n ity and civil rights activist, has donated her papers to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Radcliffe College. Batson has been prominent in the battle against racism, having served as com m issioner o f the M a s s a c h u s e tts C o m m is sio n A g a in st Discrimination and as founder and director o f the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a voluntary desegregation program exchanging students between urban and suburban schools. She was also the first fem ale president o f the New England Regional Conference o f the NAACP. The papers contain photographs, correspon­ dence, speeches, and clippings. ■ 4 0 / C&RL News m January 1998